McAfee Virus Scan Plus 2009 Review

If you are among the many thousands of people who operate a computer and surf the internet undoubtedly you will run across unscrupulous people whose only desire is to steal your personal information or causing havoc on your computer.

For this reason I have decided to review McAfee’s latest virus protection to help anyone interested in protecting your personal information.

Setup:

McAfee persists with a method to use a bootstrap, a method of downloading code to your machine, it then installs the suite module by module. However in this edition the process was much faster in our informal tests.

According to McAfee, this method permits it to offer the latest build; the other alternative is to install the product, then immediately update. As a whole the process is quite simplified and straight forward.

Uninstalling:

If you ever want to remove McAfee Internet Security 2009, there will be no uninstalling option for McAfee in the Start menu listing. Instead, use the traditional windows uninstaller to get rid of the software.

After a reboot, we found its little evidence on our machine. So a clean uninstall feature should have been provided.

Interface:

The interface was impressive integrating all of its tools–security, utility, and networking–in one interface. This feature of integrating all the tools really came in handy.

The McAfee Security Center offers a left-hand navigation for all tools, with a right-hand windowpane for system status. There are two types of contents: one lists basic features, which should be sufficient for most people, while a second lists tools that are more advanced.

Features:

McAfee VirusScan offers some quality set of features:

• Scheduled scanning can be set to scan your system at a desired time, but you will not be able to do  multiple schedules at once.
• A new feature called Quick Scan will scan for the most common areas within your computer that are hit by viruses.
• Disk boot sectors
• System memory and startup objects are included in these areas.
• Added protection for Viruses, Trojans, Spyware and Malware is also provided.

Some further features of the new McAfee system include:

• McAfee’s Active Protection (also known as Artemis) which will enable the product to detect and remove a new threat that is only a few minutes old. Heuristics and built-in signature files are used by the program to identify unknown threats. Daily signature updates are provided to keep the product updated.

One excellent new feature introduced is the provision of Active Protection, McAfee’s near-instant communication with the master signature back at McAfee database.

If a new malicious software is caught by McAfee Internet Security, rather than wait for the new update to become available, protection is sent back to the desktop.

By comparison, Norton uses mini database updates every few minutes. In Labs’ performance tests, McAfee 2009, in general, scored noticeably better than last year’s version, and on one test it scored better than Norton Internet Security 2009.

In third-party, independent antivirus testing using live viruses, McAfee Internet Security 2009 scored in the upper ranks, although not always at the top position.

In terms of boot speed, McAfee Internet Security 2009 took only 30 seconds, faster than Norton and most of the other suites we tested. In terms of whether McAfee Internet Security 2009 will protect your PC, we quote results from two leading independent antivirus testing organizations.

In the September 2008 AV-test.org results, McAfee Internet Security 2008 scored well, having a few false positives, but is scored toward the bottom of the list in response times to new threats.

In the latest test results from AV-Comparatives.org for on-demand scans, McAfee VirusScan Plus 2009 earned an Advanced (second highest) rating, catching 94 percent of all malicious software tested, falling behind Norton, Kaspersky, Eset Nod32, and others.

Support:

An Emergency Response team, constantly monitors the worldwide virus behavior to provide you with the maximum safety. The always-on protection protects against viruses, spyware and other Internet threats that may enter your PC.

McAfee lacks a bit on the technical support end. Unlike Trend Micro and Norton, which both offer free telephone support, McAfee only offers its support for a limited time.

The 30-day free phone support is accessible daily from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Pacific. Afterward, telephone support is starts to cost you at $9 per minute or incident.

Virtual Technician is software available as an extra plug-in. It diagnoses the current state of your AV and can recommend some actions to improve it. It doesn’t have a manual or other online support.

Conclusion:

McAfee is faster lighter and much improved when compared to its previous versions. It is a proved to be a competitor when compared to some of the best products available in the market. Instant updates are available instantly to keep your product updated.

Comparing the product to one of the best products like Norton Internet Security we notice that this product offers more features combined with a decent interface.

Much of its features can be customized according to ones needs. Technical support can be improved and test scores could have been higher but still its offers some unprecedented security.

The bottom line:

Security provided by this remarkable software is no joke and can be compared to some of the best products available in the market. Definitely it is an incredible piece of software worth trying!

System Requirements:

Operating System –

• Windows 2000 (32-bit) with Service Pack 4 (SP4) or higher
• Windows XP (32-bit) with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or higher
• Windows Vista (32 or 64-bit)

System Memory – 256 MB RAM
Monitor – 800 X 600 or higher resolution
Storage – 150 MB of available free drive space
Internet – Internet connection
Browser – Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later (optional: Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or later)